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There are few less-democratic forms of government in a functioning democracy than the three-person commission, which is used by Lackawanna County and many other counties statewide.

Three commissioners are the executive and legislative branches. Most often, a two-person majority conceives and executes county policy, while a minority commissioner does ... well, not much.

Its saving grace is that commissioners are able to get things done. Many of Lackawanna County's major public initiatives - Montage Mountain development, professional baseball and so on - would have been less likely but for the power invested in commissioners.

In the hands of the wrong person or people, such power easily can be misused, as demonstrated by notoriously corrupt former majority Commissioners Robert Cordaro and A.J. Munchak, who are serving long federal prison terms. That also points to modest checks and balances; then-minority Commissioner Michael Washo raised many issues but, faced only with a somnambulant county controller, Mr. Cordaro and Mr. Munchak were not deterred until the feds caught them.

So the current form of government is imperfect. But it's worth remembering, as businessman Charles Volpe launches a petition drive to have voters ultimately determine whether the county should change its form of government, that there is no perfect form.

The alternative probably would be an elected, legislating county council with an elected or appointed county executive to execute policy and conduct day-to-day operations.

Before jumping on that bandwagon, consider what that resembles - your local school board. There is little about most school board governance in Pennsylvania to suggest it as a model.

With an elected executive and council, county residents would risk developing the spectacle that is Scranton's polarized government.

The bigger issue in local governance is the fragmentation - multiple units of government that waste millions of dollars through redundancy in everything from tax collection to procurement to professional services.

Rather than simply examining the structure of the county government, voters should move to examine the scope of all local government, stop wasting money and consolidate government operations. With between 200,000 and 210,000 people, Lackawanna County would be a midsize city. It needs one local government rather than more than 40. For true reform, it would make far more sense to build a new house than to rearrange the existing furniture.

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